LONDON – Brown University ranked among the top 81 to 90 institutions of higher education in the 2013 global ranking of universities by reputation in the third annual ranking by the Times Higher Education.

The list, which is produced by Times Higher Education – a product of the Times of London – asked 16,639 academics around the world to nominate the best universities in their field of expertise.

“A spin-off of the annual World University Rankings, the reputation league table is based on nothing more than subjective judgment - but it is the considered expert judgment of senior, published academics - the people best placed to know the most about excellence in our universities,” is how the Times describes the ranking on its website.

Scores were based on the number of times that survey respondents marked an institution as “the best.” After the first 50 institutions, universities were listed together in groups of 10, in alphabetical order because the scoring differentials between institutions become very narrow.

Brown University shared the 81-90 ranking with the University of Amsterdam, Boston University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, France’s École Polytechnique, the University of Florida, the University of New South Wales in Australia, Université Pierre et Marie Curie in France, Rutgers University, the Netherlands’ Utrecht University and Washington University in St. Louis.

Of the academics surveyed, 44 percent came from the U.S., 28 percent were from Europe, 25 percent from Asia and the Middle East and 4 percent from Africa.

To the north, the reputations of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ranked first and second, respectively, and the University of Massachusetts was tied for 42nd.

“A university’s reputation is subjective, but it matters deeply in today’s highly competitive global marketplace, and it has serious real-world impact – helping to attract top student and academic talent, and encouraging industrial investment and benefactions,” Phil Baty, editor of the Times rankings said in a statement.

“It is clear that no university, no matter how prestigious, can afford to be complacent in this fast-moving, information-rich global age. New forces in higher education are emerging, especially in the East Asian countries that are investing heavily in building world-class universities, so the traditional elite must be very careful. In the three years that the World Reputation Rankings have been running, we have clear evidence that the U.S. and the UK in particular are losing ground,” he added.

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